Healthy Homemade Tomato Soup

Healthy Homemade Tomato Soup

YUM!! Really this is the best word to describe this amazing soup.  When the weather starts getting cooler, and well that can be anytime in Cleveland, I begin to really crave grilled cheese! Truthfully, it has been a part of my meal plan each Tuesday since I discovered Ezekiel bread. To me, there is nothing better than to dip a grilled cheese in some thick tomato soup!!

Typically I would break open a can of Campbell's tomato soup, and heat it up on the stove. Well I don't miss that high fructose corn syrup which is the 2nd on the ingredient list nor the taste of metal from the can.  Anyone taste that when you eat soups from a can?! Anyway, I asked for some recipes from my FB friends, and I was really pumped when one of my BFF's  forwarded me the recipe she uses.  I looked it over and determined how I was going to "clean" it up.

INGREDIENTS:

*3 Tbsp. of olive oil

*3 cups of chopped yellow onion ( I used 3.)

*1 Tbsp. of minced garlic

*4 cups of chicken stock- I used a combo of Emeril's organic chicken stock and Rachael Ray's low sodium option

*1 (28 oz.) can of crushed tomatoes 

*less than a tsp. of paprika

*1 Tbsp. of sea salt

*1 tsp. of black pepper

*1/2 cup of whole wheat organic orzo

*1/2 cup Greek yogurt

I picked this up at my local Giant Eagle.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Chop your onions.  I used my food chopper to make them small, fine pieces.

2.  Heat up the olive oil in the pot and then add the onions. Cook them over medium-low for about 15 minutes. I stirred them every once in a while.

3. Add the garlic and stir for another minute.

4. Stir in chicken stock, tomatoes, **paprika, salt, and pepper.  Bring it to a boil, lower heat, and then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

5. While the soup is simmering, cook the orzo pasta for 7 minutes. Drain it and add to the soup once it has simmered for the 15 minutes.

6. Add the Greek yogurt and allow it to simmer for another 10 minutes while you stir it often.

**The original recipe calls for a large pinch of saffron threads; however, that costs around $22 for a small container!!! What in the what?! That was a third of my weekly grocery budget, so I substituted that with paprika! Yum!!

This went so well with my Ezekiel grilled cheese sandwich! It was such a nice consistency and really hit the spot on a cool, rainy day!!

FIXERS: I just filled up a green container and called it a day!!! There was such a small amount of orzo, so I didn't bother checking off a yellow for that. You can also delete that from the recipe if you don't like it. :)

Happy Eating!!

XoXo